Welcome to school for Term 4. It's lovely to be back again. I've visited a number of classes online this week and it's a joy to talk with them.

We've experienced an excellent start to the term. Almost all students have re-engaged very quickly with their remote learning program. It's amazing to see how much some students unexpectedly thrive in such a situation while others thrive in the face to face environment. We are all quite different!

A few parents have mentioned that they would have loved remote learning to continue over the holidays. Their children would have been occupied more during lockdown. Many others have shared about their picnics, short hikes and bike rides. I was glad to hear that some students were able to get together at the local park. We're coming together again.

I'd love to share with you some very creative lockdown activity. Firstly Pia (KM) who has enjoyed turning a simple Mathematics task into a wonderful piece of digital art. Secondly Allira (2M), Rylan (1B) and Tyler (4B) who have missed the beach so much that they painted their own mural of a beach scene on their fence. What a great way of keeping their positivity high!

Safe return of students

Catholic Education are developing plans to ensure the safe return of students to school and our staff are working together to explore the practicalities of this. We will advise parents of these as soon as they are finalised.

St John the Apostle Primary School follows various COVID-19 Safe requirements as advised by ACT Health which seek to prevent and minimise transmission of COVID-19.

The safety and wellbeing of students and staff is the primary consideration of any decision related to re-opening schools.

These requirements are designed to:

• minimise unnecessary physical interaction between students on school grounds;
• ensure that students learn and play only with those in their cohort, wherever possible;
• minimise opportunities for transmission and enhance contact tracing; and,
• minimise the potential for widespread infection across the school and wider school community.

All of our staff have been encouraged to be vaccinated, and I can advise that many of our staff already have or are in the process of doing so.

Due to Australian privacy laws, we are unable to advise the vaccination status of individual schools or school staff.

Summer Uniforms

I would firstly like to offer a big thank you to Belinda Clifford, Michael Rix and Wanda Klinicki who volunteer in our Uniform Shop. They are parent and grandparent volunteers who generously offer their time and skills so that all parents can access affordable, new and used uniform items for their children. Not all schools have this same opportunity and what they, and their predecessor Heather Rattenbury, have set up is exceptional. Thank you.

When students return they wear the summer uniform. It is available now for ordering through Qkr! Once ordered our volunteers will put your order together and notify you how to collect it. While Belinda, Michael and Wendy are very responsive to everyone's requests, our volunteers are not Amazon, nor do they need to be. They also have to balance their own commitments to work and children during remote learning. They will prepare your order as soon as they are able to and let you know when it is ready for picking up.

World Teachers Day

Friday 29 October it is World Teachers Day. It is a day to acknowledge the tireless work our teachers do for their students, whether through remote learning or face to face teaching.

I would like to put together a video of our students talking about their teachers and share it with them and the community on that day. Not all students will have returned to school by then so you could help by recording a very brief conversation with your child using the questions below. If you are happy with it then please send it directly to me at Matthew.Garton@cg.catholic.edu.au . Tip: if you ask the questions and then let them talk. without talking over the top of each other, it can be edited to include only the sections where your child speaks.

If you could ask your child the following questions:

• How would you describe your teacher?
• What's something your teacher does that you really like/love?
• What do you think they do in their free time when you're not at school?
• If you could give your teacher anything in the world what would you give them?
• If you could say something nice to them what would it be?

COMPASS Parent Portal

Thank you for embracing the use of the Compass Parent Portal. It is new and there are a few differences between both the desktop and the app. The link below is for a handout that explains some of the functions of each.

Parent Portal Desktop and App Guide

Thank you everyone for working together with us as we all support your children in their learning.

God Bless